when we moved here to our ‘new’ home (though i dont know how ‘new’ it is now that we’ve been living here a week short of 9 months) one of the things i was most excited about (apart from NEW HOME and central heating) was our surprisingly large balcony and the opportunity to put together a little garden in there! unfortunately i didn’t get a chance to do anything about it last year cos we moved in mid-june and less than 2 weeks later we went to finland for almost three weeks and then it was already mid july! by then it was too late to sow anything, except maybe salads or herbs. and i was kind of busy still unpacking and getting the new furniture delivered to even think about salads and herbs. but this year i’m going to grow EVERYTHING! or at least try. or i mean, i’m gonna start slow, with a few things. tomatoes and chillis to begin with. maybe some flowers and maybe strawberries and/or raspberries, and then later on when it gets warmer, i’ll grow some of those salads and herbs. and if it goes well, maybe i’ll do some proper veg next year, like courgettes and aubergines, maybe even butternut squash. (those are my faves ?)

last monday i decided that week i would kickstart my garden, and after work i went to wilkinsons to look at their garden stuff and try to decide what to grow and what i needed to do it. but i’m absolutely clueless, i’ve never grown anything and even my shop bought living herb pots die really quick (then again, apparently they are done so they die quickly anyway so you go and buy another one. ugh capitalism) so i’ve been talking to carl’s mum a lot, picking her brain for advice. she’s got a fairly big garden in the back her house and she’s been growing vegetables too since we moved out. her advice has made it a little less taunting, but heck it still feels kind of overwhelming. especially standing in front of the wall of seeds in wilkos.

i went out on saturday to purchase my first garden bits: compost (duh) couple of cheap propagator bits (basically box with a lid for the seed trays to keep moisture inside) a pack of 3 seed tray and some seeds. for now, i went with two kinds of tomatoes (gardener’s delight & roma vf) and hot patio sizzle chillis. when i was having a looksie on monday, i had also got a seed pot (one that comes with dirt in the pot already…) of (hot) de cayenne peppers. once i got home and had eaten some lunch, i put a Bitch Planet themed spotify playlist on extra loud so i could hear it on the balcony and got sowing. for some reason i’d only got 2 trays and one lid, so i only sowed the tomatoes since i was already bordering on a little late for sowing them, (could have done it two months ago, but it’s ok to do as late as april apparently) and improvised a carrier bag around the second tray, to keep the moisture in. according to ma-in-law that works fine, as long as the bag doesnt touch the dirt) on sunday i got a third tray and more lids on my lunch break as well as a seed pot of what i thought was a third tomato breed but it turns out i had just grabbed more gardener’s delight. whoops. now it’s all sown, and the trays are on a little trolley in front of the living room window, while the pots live on the window sill as it’s still too cold outside for them.

next week when i’m back from sheffield, i thought i might go get some of the multicolour fuschia plug plants and maybe also begonia and lupin bulbs, and beginning of strawberries and/or raspberries, but who knows….. i’ve put links below to what i got from wilkos to get started, if you are interested: